


Bring Him Home

by MaddieandChimney



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: F/M, tw: panic attack, tw: past trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:53:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25164970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieandChimney/pseuds/MaddieandChimney
Summary: Mid panic attack, Maddie tells Chimney to go away... only he takes it literally.
Relationships: Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han
Kudos: 14
Collections: Madney One-Shots





	Bring Him Home

The moment she hears him angrily slamming the glass down on the counter, hard enough for it to shatter, it feels as though the entire world has stopped. Everything moves in slow motion for those initial seconds, her throat tightens, her chest feeling as though it’s on fire. Her eyes are wide, her grip on the edge of the kitchen counter tight. It’s just Chimney, that’s what she tries to keep reminding herself – it’s her perfect, kind, sweet, loving Chimney who would never hurt her. He’d never even think about hurting her for even a second.

It doesn’t matter. His anger still echoes around her head, the sound of the glass shattering bringing her straight back to Hershey. For a moment, she’s not with the man she loves and trusts, she’s right back in that house with her dead husband screaming at her. Her entire body is frozen, tense, as though she’s waiting for pain to come. It’s unexplainable, barely logical but it’s as though she’s been trained to just expect it, having lived on edge for so long.

“Maddie?”

His voice doesn’t even sound as though he’s in the same room. She can’t breathe, the world is spinning and her hand flies to her chest, clutching at the material of her top. It’s hard to remember everything Frank had told her about these moments, it’s even harder now that she’s pregnant which only intensifies the panic rather than quelling the intense fear coursing through her body.

There’s the distant sound of Chimney apologising to her before his hand is on her shoulder. It’d already been a rough day – she’d had to listen to someone dying on the other end of the phone, feeling more helpless than usual, she’d taken a call from a child sobbing as they hid in the closet, their parents arguing in the background. It had been one awful heart-breaking call after the other, she had been relieved when it was time to go home. Only to be met with an out of character angry Chimney who had once again been thrown into the depths of danger because of someone else’s stupidity.

He had been mid-rant, slightly drunk, arms flying everywhere as he explained to her how he had, once again, been passed over for a rescue that would have been a lot easier for him than her much bigger brother. How he’d gone from only needing to save one person, to two. And she got it, she understood why he was pissed (Buck had text her apologising before she had even gotten home, she felt her boyfriend’s irritation), but he was only getting himself more wound up by the second.

Until he had slammed the glass down a little too hard, practically screaming the word ‘stupid’ as he did. It was too much, it was all too much and she hated herself, her body completely betraying her before she could convince her mind that it was just Chimney. It was Howie. Her Howie, father of her child, the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

It was too late. She was too far gone.

The moment his hand is on her, she’s practically flying back, slamming herself into the kitchen cupboard as her entire body shakes with the intensity of every breath she’s trying to gasp into her body. “G-get away, go… go away…” Maddie’s hands press against her ears, eyes tightly closing, repeating in her own head over and over that she’s home, she’s fine, she’s with Chimney and she needs to calm down for the sake of their unborn child.

By the time it works and she opens her eyes, she’s alone. The world is spinning and she’s absolutely spent, shaking hand moving to grip onto the nearest counter as her bottom lip trembles. “H-Howie?” Maddie breathes out, gulping down the lump in her throat, one hand moving to her stomach, shaking her head.

He wouldn’t leave her, that’s what she keeps telling herself, walking around their apartment. Chimney wouldn’t just leave, he’s probably giving her some space because it’s been nearly three months since her last panic attack, and probably closer to a year since one quite as severe as that one. Maddie knows she needs to explain that it wasn’t just him, that he can get angry and passionate about things without her breaking. But he’s gone; the apartment is empty and she’s alone.

Maddie can’t remember the last time she felt so lonely.

Her entire body is shaking by the time she finds her phone, trembling fingers scrolling through to find his name as she sobs. She lets the first phone call drop, quickly dialling his number again, leaving a panicked voicemail that time as her chest starts to tighten again. By the time she’s called him sixteen times, the messages have gone from demanding he get home, to panicked sobbing, barely comprehensible, just _begging_ him to come home.

“Howard, p-please… h-home… need… I’m sorry… I’m—” Much of the message had been her trying to catch her breath, the tears only getting heavier with each passing second, the pain in her chest moving to her stomach and throughout her body. The beep signalling she’s been cut off, her finger moving over to press his name once again until…

Bobby.

Maddie knows she could call Hen but she’s still enjoying her new life as a second-time mom and it’s the last place Chimney would go if he was upset. Bobby might know something or at least have the means to go looking for him in a better state than she is right then. Buck, not only was he the last person Chimney would want to see, but also he wouldn’t take too kindly to his sister sobbing on the phone to him because her boyfriend left her alone, crying.

He picks up by the third ring, a gentle concern in his voice from the moment he hears whimpering on the other end. “L-lost him.” It makes no sense, the words barely make sense to her but she can already hear the sound of jingling keys on the other end, followed by a slamming door.

Bobby would have known that his friend and colleague hadn’t been in the right state of mind when he left work a few hours before. It’s not too far stretched a guess that something has happened. “Maddie, I need you to breathe, okay? I need you to tell me what happened.” His voice is always so calming, authoritative, forcing her to sink down onto the floor of the dining room she had been pacing moments before.

“T-told him to… to get away… w-was… panic attack…” The air is tense around her once again, moving to rest her head on her knees, pressing the phone against her ear that little tighter when she sobs out her boyfriend’s name. “Was gone when I could—when I could b-breathe again… but…” She trails off, shaking her head, “Can’t breathe now. N-need him…”

If he’s at all phased by the sobbing woman on the other end of the phone, he doesn’t show it, his voice unwavering, “I’ll find him, Maddie. I’ll bring him home; do you want me to call your brother?”

“N-no! No… just want Chimney.”

“Then I’ll bring him home to you, I promise.”


End file.
